


Ancient History

by franticatlantic



Category: Bandom, Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Alternate Universe, Josh is upir, M/M, tortured vampire trope
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-09
Updated: 2016-11-09
Packaged: 2018-08-30 02:10:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8514613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/franticatlantic/pseuds/franticatlantic
Summary: And the history books forgot about us.
And the Bible didn't mention us, not even once.





	

**Author's Note:**

> for an [anon](http://vintagetyler.tumblr.com/post/152836741048/hi-i-absolutely-love-your-writing-i-was-wondering) on tumblr who wanted immortal ty or josh and steph, who wanted something kinda spooky.
> 
> everything i know about upir i learned from hemlock grove god bless that series.

Josh scrapes his fangs down the side of Tyler’s neck, teasing.

Tyler, limp and boneless from his orgasm, lays in Josh’s arms and exhales past lips bitten raw. “Gonna bite me?” Even his voice is lazy, vocal chords unwilling to exert much more than minimal effort after shouting themselves hoarse as Josh made him come.

“No.” Josh says it like he’s closing a book, and Tyler sees him lean back in the eery light of the moon, fangs receding. He keeps his arms around Tyler as he settles against the giant headboard of the fourposter bed.

“Have you ever?” Tyler wonders, grazing fingers down Josh’s cold, pale chest. Josh’s hands are the only thing currently keeping him upright - he feels dazed, as if in a dream. Maybe he is. If he were, though, Josh would be a nightmare. But he’s not. He’s beautiful, porcelain and safe in the soft moonlight.

Especially now that his fangs are gone, sunk back beneath his gums like tiny switchblades.

“Maybe.” His eyes flash, seeming onyx in the dark. “Does that make you jealous?”

“ _Maybe,_ ” Tyler mocks, and scoots further up Josh’s lap, until their soft dicks are laying together and Tyler can wrap his arms properly around Josh’s shoulders. “Tell me another.”

Josh hums, walks his fingers up the very center of Tyler’s back, counting the divots of his spine. “What would you like to hear?”

A shrug, as Tyler cups the sides of Josh’s neck in both hands, feeling for the bite marks that don’t seem to be there. “You never tell me about the important stuff anyway. Rome, Pompeii, World War II, not even about stupid Nixon or the American presidents.”

“You don’t need to know about that stuff, Ty.”

“I don’t strictly _need_ to know any of the other stories you tell me either, but you tell me anyway.”

“The things you want to know about were ugly, Tyler. They’re over and the world should be glad for it. Pick something happy.”

Happy, happy… Josh is right - all of the important events of history Tyler can think of are rather depressing. He lights on something that may not be happy, but he won’t know until he asks. Ghosting his fingers once more down Josh’s neck to see his eyes flutter shut, he asks, “Can you tell me about the time you changed?”

Josh tips his head back, his eyes open, and his brows knit together just so. Tyler quails a bit under his gaze. “That’s not happy.”

He wants to apologize, but doesn’t. Josh told him a long time ago not to apologize for things he wasn’t absolutely sorry for. And he wants to know. “Please?” He says instead, though his voice is meek. “I’d like to know. You’ve never talked about it.”

“Really?” Josh tilts his head like he forgot, but Tyler calls his bluff. Josh doesn’t forget anything. “I never mentioned how you become upir?”

Tyler shakes his head and inches even closer. “Tell me?”

“You look tired, Tyler. Why don’t you sleep and we can talk about it in the morning?”

“Because I wanna talk now.” He tries to look menacing, which he’s sure comes off as innocently adorable to Josh.

Who is passing his fingers through Tyler’s hair. “You have to kill yourself.”

Suddenly Tyler is very tired, rubbing at his eyes and yawning. “You’re right. That’s not happy.”

“Oh,” Josh says, and he’s smiling now, grinning in that wolfish way he has even without his fangs to complete it, “but you wanted to know.”

“Does it have a happy ending?” Tyler asks sheepishly.

Josh pulls Tyler flush against him and Tyler shivers against all that coldness. “I’m here now, aren’t I?”

Nodding, Tyler fans his fingers out over Josh’s jaw and kisses him slowly, deeply. “Okay. You can tell me.” And he nestles down to listen.

“I’m from Romania, where even today people still hold stock in the old wives’ tales about vampires and werewolves.”

“But you’re not a vampire.”

“Vampires don’t exist. But upir do. I lived in a poor village - we had to walk three miles just to get to the nearest city, sometimes in the dead of winter with three feet of snow on the ground. I was the oldest male child so that was always my job; to venture into the city for food and then back before nightfall. Because you never knew what kind of things awaited you in the woods.”

Tyler shakes once and rubs his face against the crux of Josh’s shoulder.

“One day coming back from town I was late. I knew I should stay in the city at least until sunrise, but I didn’t have enough money for the inn and my siblings would go hungry if I didn’t make it back that night. So I started home.”

“Brave,” Tyler interjects, and Josh silences him with a gentle hand at the back of his head.

“Stupid, is what it was. I lost the trail in the dark. The trees were closing in, branches getting stuck in my hair and my clothes. And I was freezing. The wind howled through the woods…and then I heard something. A snarl, which could have been a wolf or even a vargulf. But it wasn’t. It was something much worse.”

With a tiny squeak, Tyler pushes himself bodily against Josh, but he’s already flush with him - there’s nowhere else to go.

Josh’s eyes flash down to him, amused. “Are you scared?”

“Nope,” he lies. “Go on.”

“After the snarl I heard something dripping, I figured it was just the snow melting off the trees. I had to pass where I had heard the noises in order to get home, and as I got closer I realized the dripping wasn’t just melting snow. It was dark, but I could smell it. And in the moonlight I could tell. It was blood, trickling down from…”

Tyler shifts again, waiting for the end to the story.

“An upir!” Josh shouts, and Tyler shrieks as he’s flipped back onto the sheets, scared shitless with Josh kissing down his neck and over his chest, Tyler clinging to him with quivering fingers. He kisses just below Tyler’s ear. “Scaredy-cat.”

“Ass,” Tyler complains, but he’s still shaking, trying to catch his breath. “You wanted to scare me.”

“Only because you’re so cute when you’re trembling beneath me.” With a little growl Josh takes Tyler’s earlobe between his teeth and pulls.

Tyler rolls his eyes and regains most of his composure, pushes Josh back by the shoulders. “So what was it?”

“I said. An upir.”

“So that’s really when you got bit?”

“Yes.” Josh cocks his head and his hair falls into his eyes. “Are you disappointed?”

“No! I just thought you told me all that to scare me. Continue.”

“Why? So you can shit yourself?”

Tyler wrinkles his nose. “That’s _so_ not sexy - please don’t ever say that again.” He runs a steadier hand down Josh’s side and squeezes the cool skin he finds at Josh’s hip. “Just tell me the rest? Quick.”

Josh sighs. “I got bit that night, but I didn’t know by what until I made it home. I started to have a thirst for raw meat, I didn’t want anything my mother cooked or the things my sisters used to gather in the forest. I went crazy, hungering for the sheep in their pen or rabbits I saw scampering through the forest. But I didn’t know that you could only be true upir after a suicide - none of the stories told you that. So I took my father’s best hunting knife…and I slit my throat with it.”

As if on a homing beacon, Tyler’s hands go to Josh’s throat, cupping and feeling and wanting to protect. With a chuckle, Josh grabs one of Tyler’s hands and brings it to his mouth, kisses his fingers. “There’s no scar. I healed after I woke up.”

“W-What happened to your family?”

“They died eventually, I assume. After I realized what I’d done, what I’d become, I left. Because I was afraid of hurting them.”

“So you never saw them again after that?”

“No,” Josh says, and slips to Tyler’s side, curling around him.

“Can I ask you something else?” Josh nods. “Where did you get bit?”

Josh looks down to the inside of his left arm and offers it to Tyler. Tyler takes it in his hands and smooths his fingers over the creamy skin, the dip in Josh’s elbow. He looks only cursorily - he’s touched Josh here hundreds of times before and knows there are no bite marks.

“I healed,” Josh explains again. “As always.”

“You don’t like being upir.” It’s not a question because Tyler already knows the answer. “And that’s why you won’t change me.”

Josh says nothing.

Tyler sighs. “But what happens when I’m 75 and you still look like this?” Godly, Tyler wants to say. Because that’s what Josh looks like with his eternally youthful smile and alabaster skin.

For a long time Tyler doesn’t think Josh is going to answer. Eventually, though, he blinks and says, “Don’t think I haven’t thought about it.”

Tyler’s heart leaps. His fingers tighten on Josh’s arm. “About changing me?”

Josh sits up and draws the covers over them. “You should sleep, Tyler. It’s 2 in the morning.”

Satisfied - for now - and nuzzling close into Josh’s chest, Tyler gives small kisses to the chilly hollow of his throat. “Just promise me I’ll have you forever. Please.”

“Forever,” Josh promises.

Tyler feels warm all over.

**Author's Note:**

> i have [tumblr](http://vintagetyler.tumblr.com/).


End file.
